Symbology?

While the character of Chi-Chi is interesting and without much debate, the clear main character in the film. However, it's not the soul one. Also shown in her film is a butterfly and more interestingly a hand. In this specific post I'd like to focus on these other characters as they can be interpreted in a few ways, much like the protagonist (Chi-Chi) but not as fleshed out or obvious to the viewer. One can look at Chi-Chi and assume, what with the bird's tweeting being that of the filmmaker's voice work and embodiment of interests and characteristics, it can be observed that the protagonist could be an personification of Ingrid herself. But I digress, the characters of interest here really are of the other two aforementioned characters. There are two specific ways i can interpret the story via the plot, characters, and occurances within. I have found that I can look at the story in a pragmatic and a spiritual sense.

In the previous entry, I touched on a very pragmatic sense of analyzing the theme of her film. I likened the hand to the sheltered and directive life of Chi-Chi, whether it be parental figures or just the constraints of living under the care of guardians where you are free to play, so long as you are grounded and within reach. The hand interacts and plays with Chi-Chi but also protects and assists her. Then suddenly she's given wings and is distraught, angry, burdened by the weight of it (responsibility and true freedom) but learns to overcome those anxieties and mature into a actual, free flying bird who can finally fly up and flirt with the butterfly - a personification of freedom and one's dreams.

The other theme touched on, spirituality, is actually one that Ingrid intended. When asked about what her film was about in a thematic sense, she said, "Religion and personal life."
However, she wanted to make it digestable by a generally secular audience. In that effect, the hand obviously becomes a reference to the Holy Spirit or God himself, protecting and guiding Chi-Chi (Who once again could be a personification of Ingrid) along in her life, then granting her wings.

In that effect, Ingrid cited a certain inspiration to her film. The original idea is from a story of religious context. In it, the "bird is created without wings ... God put wings on the bird and flies with it."
However, the whole idea to her is nostalgically lost in time as she herself can not recall the story that inspired her. She basically took that memory of the story and infused her own element of plot and character to it that are genuinely her own - in turn not making it an adaptation but rather something entirely of her own that was inspired from an influential story.
"The whole struggle aspect" is her own addition, as she put it, fusing a pragmatic and secular element to the oft spiritual story.

In my attempts to find the story she had mentioned, I had no luck. However, an internet search revealed many mythological plots that involve birds in them. What caught my attention was the immediate line present to me:

"Rising above the earth and soaring through the skies, birds have been symbols of power and freedom throughout the ages. In many myths and legends, birds link the human world to the divine or supernatural realms that lie beyond ordinary experience."
-http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Be-Ca/Birds-in-Mythology.html

The mythological context of birds has parallels to observable traits and themes in Ingrids own film, making it very much so something inspiring in a spiritual sense.